Huawei’s Strategy to Stop Using Windows and Android

Huawei strategy Windows Android reliance: A new set of gadgets put in Huawei’s store reveals one of China’s software futures. The gadgets sport an efficient operating system developed by the company.

This new system is set to replace Windows and Android. 

Huawei Strategy Windows Android Reliance

The collection of gadgets is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre in the southern city of Shenzhen. The city is a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony.

OpenHarmony is an open source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after it was cut off support for Google’s Android.

OpenHarmony, the fastest-growing open-source operating system for smart devices last year, with more than 70 organisations contributing to it.

Also, more than 460 hardware and software products were built across finance, education, aerospace and industry, Huawei said in its 2023 annual report.

The aim of making it open source is to replicate Android’s success in removing licensing costs for users and to give companies a customisable springboard for their own products, said Charlie Cheng, deputy manager of the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre, when Reuters visited.

“Harmony will definitely grow into a mainstream operating system, and will give the world a new choice of operating system besides iOS and Android,” he said. “China is learning from the West.”

China to Support Huawei Strategy To Reduce Windows Android Reliance

While Huawei’s recent strong selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for signs of advances in China’s chip supply chain, the company has also quietly built up expertise in sectors crucial to Beijing’s vision of technology self-sufficiency from operating systems to in-vehicle software.

President Xi Jinping last year told the Communist Party’s elite politburo that China must wage a difficult battle to localise operating systems and other technology “as soon as possible” as the U.S. cracks down on exports of advanced chips and other components.

Also Read: Huawei Claims Sanctions Have Bolstered Its Resilience

Also, OpenHarmony is now being widely promoted within China as a “national operating system” amid concerns that other major companies could be severed from Microsoft, opens a new tab of Windows and Android products upon which many systems rely.

“This strategic move will likely erode the market share of Western operating systems like Android and Windows in China, as local products gain traction,” said Sunny Cheung, an associate fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. defence policy group.

Huawei Strategy Windows Android Reliance: Huawei Operating System Surpasses Apple’s iOS 

In the first quarter of 2024, Huawei’s HarmonyOS, the company’s in-house version of the operating system, surpassed Apple’s (AAPL.O).

This made opening a new tab iOS to become the second best-selling mobile operating system in China behind Android, research firm Counterpoint said. It has not been launched on smartphones outside China.

Huawei no longer controls OpenHarmony, having gifted its source code to a non-profit called the OpenAtom Foundation in 2020 and 2021, according to an internal memo and other releases.